For years I did not believe evil spirits or demons existed. I had grown up with the teaching that deliverance was not for today-it had ended with the first century church. In the same way, the gifts of the Holy Spirit were no longer needed today, since the church was "up and running"-like a Model-T Ford that had been pushed to get it started but was now operating on its own power.

But that all changed when I went to Afghanistan. There I came face to face with the enemy in spiritual warfare. And I saw what he was doing to Christians.

From that time on I have taken the offensive against Satan and his demons, even as Jesus Christ has commanded us to do.

The turning point came when I met a Christian woman, from California, who came to Afghanistan with her four teenagers, two boys and two girls. She claimed that the Lord had sent her there as a "missionary."

Although we were in Afghanistan as self-supporting witnesses or "tentmakers," we did not use the term "missionary." To the Afghans, this term has political connotations. It's like being a member of the CIA. Whenever Islamic armies conquered a people, they would force them to convert to Islam. So the Afghans assumed that when the British Empire colonized India, the missionaries were the religious arm of the military and would force people to become Christians.

As a result, we didn't call ourselves missionaries. Instead, I was known as a Christian pastor and a Christian teacher. Others were Christian doctors and nurses, engineers, and secretaries. That was fine. But no "missionaries" were allowed in the country.

Yet this American woman openly proclaimed she was a "missionary."

The American Embassy thought I had brought her over. But I did not even know her until she began attending our church and her four children took part in our young people's activities.

One day I asked her about her husband.

She told me the Lord had told her to come to Afghanistan, but her husband had refused to come with her. She claimed that the Bible said if you give up your home, your country, and your husband for Christ's sake, He would reward you a hundred fold.

"But the Bible doesn't say that," I countered.

I turned to Mark 10:29 to read her the passage to show her that the Bible did not say she should leave her husband. Before I could, however, my eye first fell on Mark 9:29 which said: "This kind (of demon) comes out only by prayer." This was God warning me.

As I read Mark 10:29 to her, she became very upset. "Well, even though it isn't in the Bible," she said, "the Lord told me to leave my husband, and the Lord knows more than the Bible!"

When she said that, I knew she was on shaky ground! But she resisted all attempts to hear the truth, and became very angry, vowing that neither she nor her children would ever go to our church again.

Not long afterwards, however, she phoned me to say she was in terrible trouble. I asked a church elder, John Strachan of Scotland, to go with me to her home.

"I just received word that my husband, in the States, is divorcing me on grounds of desertion," she confided. "And I don't have any money to feed my children." All she had in the cupboard was a bag of rice. She had been cooking them rice for breakfast and rice for supper. The children skipped lunch completely. "I don't even have money to pay the rent," she said.

Then she told us of the old secondhand VW minibus which she had bought. It didn't even have a battery! She claimed that the Lord had told her that morning that the VW would start even without a battery. When she tried to start it, of course, the engine would not work, so she had called us.

"I'm not sure this is the Lord speaking to me after all," she said.

"How does the Lord speak to you?" I asked.

"Through a Ouija board!"

Well! Then the story came out.

She had bought a Ouija board in California as a game for her family, and it began giving her "messages." It told her to sell her home and go to the animal pound where she would find a white dog. She was to bring the dog home and name him "Friend." Then she was to take the dog with her and go to Afghanistan, where she would find Jesus Christ living there as a little 7-year-old boy, having been born again on this earth. She was told to raise him and then to go with Jesus to Jerusalem to help him rebuild the Temple. She thought all these messages were from the Lord.

It was with this vision that she had come to Afghanistan.

"That is not the Lord speaking to you," I told her. "That is the Devil, who is the great Deceiver. The Lord takes care of His own when He calls them. But here your husband is divorcing you, and you don't have any food or money."

While we had been talking this way, her white dog had been jumping wildly against the door separating the two rooms.

"Look, we've got to get rid of these things," I told her.

She brought out the Ouija board, and we burned it right then and there in her fireplace.

I asked if she had anything else.

"Yes," she replied. "The Ouija board gave me the architectural drawings for the Temple in Jerusalem. I have all that."

"Those must be burned too. Is there anything else?"

"Oh yes, whenever the children get sick, I ask the Ouija board what medicine to give, and it gives me prescriptions."

"Let's get rid of those. Is there anything else?"

"I think the dog 'Friend' has something to do with it too."

Like the pigs at Gadara during our Lord's time, the dog was demon-possessed.

So John Strachan and I took the dog outside of Kabul into a valley where we shot him and then buried him.

Since I had never experienced anything like this before, I was in beyond my depth. I went to my library and read books on the occult.

At that time, we had been sending out a prayer letter every month. For the past several months, we had asked people for intercessory prayer about this whole situation. We knew we were in spiritual warfare, and that Satan was working through this woman to discredit the Lord's work. And God answered those prayers by sending us a Christian who knew exactly what to do.

We received word that a Mrs. Mitchell was coming to visit Afghanistan. She was strong, deeply committed Christian, eighty-seven years old! All six of her children had become missionaries. Even some of her grandchildren were missionaries. Now she was traveling around the world visiting them on the mission field!

I met her at the airport the next morning.

"Mrs. Mitchell," I said. "God has brought you here just at the right time." And I described what was going on.

"Don't worry," she said. "The Lord will take care of it." She acted as if it were an everyday occurrence!

I took Mrs. Mitchell to the woman's home. As soon as we arrived, I knew things had grown worse. The woman was distraught. "Last night all hell broke loose in this house," she cried. "Whenever we would look at the sofa, it would sink down as if someone were sitting on it, although no one was around. Then pictures moved about on the walls. The furniture shifted and moved from one end of the room to the other, and even around the house. I went into one bedroom with my two daughters. My two sons were in the other bedroom. We couldn't sleep a wink all night because we sensed the presence of grotesque shapes, the presence of evil all around us. We also kept hearing blood-curdling screams. We were awake all night."

"Let's hold hands and form a circle," Mrs. Mitchell said with authority. We did so immediately.

"Now let's sing the Doxology." And we sang "Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow."

After we finished singing, she turned to me. "Christy, would you lead in prayer?" So I did, and while I was praying, the woman fell down on the floor inside the circle.

Mrs. Mitchell interrupted my prayer and pointed her finger at her and said with authority, "In the name of Jesus Christ, come out! In the name of Jesus Christ, come out, and don't enter her or anyone else again!"

The lady got up.

"A demon just came out of me," she said.

We continued in prayer until the deliverance was complete. Then Mrs. Mitchell invited the woman and her four children to the Intercontinental Hotel for lunch because they were hungry.

I had already warned the U.S. Ambassador that there was an American there who wanted to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. I did this because years earlier a terrible international incident had developed when an Australian member of the Armstrong cult, the Worldwide Church of God, had gone to Jerusalem to burn down the Al Aksa mosque, in preparation for rebuilding the Temple. Muslims around the world had blamed the Jews for that incident. I didn't want a similar situation to develop now.

However, after the "missionary" was delivered of the demon of deceit, I told the American Ambassador what happened. He was amazed.

He then arranged for the entire family to fly back to New York City on the condition that they would repay their air fare later.

When the woman returned to the States, she immediately phoned her husband, seeking a reconciliation.

"Darling," he replied, "the only reason I wanted a divorce was because you left me. But since you've come back, I'm going to drop the whole thing." After they were reunited, I visited the family. I now believe that even Christians can be oppressed by demons. Some say demons can't enter Christians because the Holy Spirit dwells in us. Well, Christians get sick, don't they? Yet the Holy Spirit still dwells in us. Demon oppression is a spiritual sickness brought on by Satan through demonic deception and attack.

We must take the offensive against Satan and bind him. We must use the authority Jesus Christ has already given us. "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me," He said. "Therefore you go and make disciples from among all nations. And these signs will follow you. Demons will come out..." In the Lord's Prayer, He also taught us to ask the Father to "deliver us from the evil one."

Deliverance ministry in the Name of Jesus Christ is taking place all over the world today, including America.

To be Continued


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